Re: SC50

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6819

A Criminal War of Lies: Why the US is really in Iraq

..............An Unjust And Horrific War--Based on Lies

From the beginning, Bush has used one lie after another to sell this war. "Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, even nuclear weapons." Lie. "Iraq was connected to 9/11." Lie. "Iraqis will welcome American soldiers as 'liberators.'" Lie. Deliberate, conscious lies.

Not bad intelligence. Not good intentions gone wrong. Lies. In just one of many examples, Sidney Blumenthal recently revealed in Salon.com that, "On September 18, 2002, CIA director George Tenet briefed President Bush in the Oval Office on top-secret intelligence that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction, according to two former senior CIA officers." Bush went to war anyway.

This revelation makes clear, yet again, that the war wasn't a "mistake"--it was a crime. The U.S. government knew full well that Iraq posed no direct military threat to the U.S. or its neighbors, so the invasion constituted a war of aggression, the "supreme" crime according to the Nuremburg war crimes tribunal that judged the Nazis.

Now Bush claims, in part, that the U.S. is staying in Iraq to prevent "mass killings on a horrific scale," while condemning Iran for "the murder of innocent Iraqis." But it is the U.S. invasion itself, and the continuing direct actions of the U.S. military, that have led to "mass killings on a horrific scale" and the "murder of innocent Iraqis."

A study by Johns Hopkins University published in the British medical journal Lancet estimated that some 655,000 Iraqis had died as a result of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. That was two years ago, and the death toll continues. About 4.4 million Iraqis--out of a prewar population of 26 million--have fled to escape violence, half fleeing Iraq totally, with another 60,000 fleeing each month.

And the U.S. escalation--aka "surge"--has made things even worse: The Associated Press reports the death toll for Iraqi civilians is double what it was a year ago. In August, civilian deaths rose to their second highest level this year--at least 1, 809.The number of prisoners in U.S.-run jails in Iraq has also increased by fifty-percent under the so-called surge. The U.S. military is now holding some 24,500 prisoners--up from 16,000 earlier this year.

Bush's true colors came out when he bragged on a recent trip to Australia that "we're kicking ass." Bush and the other U.S. politicians could not care less about the hundreds of thousands of human beings who have already died on account of their actions, or of the millions made homeless and destitute.

The Real Causes of the War

Bush told the American Legion on August 28: "It's a noble cause. It is a just cause. It is a necessary cause." And he declared: "America has enduring and vital interests in the [Middle East] region...It remains a strategic crossroads for the world..."

What is this "noble cause"? And more to the point what are the "enduring and vital interests" Bush is talking about? For starters, the Middle East contains some 60 percent of world oil reserves. For the imperialists, oil is both a critical source of profit and a strategic weapon to control the global economy and other countries which depend on oil. Control of this region is essential to global domination. This is why the U.S. has 170,000 troops and an armada of ships and military bases in the region, why it spends so much to build up the settler-colonial state of Israel and reactionary Arab tyrannies like Saudi Arabia, and why it is today threatening war on Iran.

This U.S. control has meant decades of terrible oppression for hundreds of millions of people. But every major candidate of both parties subscribes to the basic assumption that the U.S. must and should dominate this region and its people. This is at the heart of why the Democrats' opposition is so half-hearted and "around the edges." They are imperialist politicians representing imperialist interests.

After claiming for years that oil had nothing to do with the Iraq war, Bush now argues that if the U.S. wasn't in the Middle East, "Extremists would control a key part of the world's energy supply, could blackmail and sabotage the global economy. They could use billions of dollars of oil revenues to buy weapons and pursue their deadly ambitions."............

..................They Lied About the War... They're Lying About the Occupation

The U.S. put together a regime of reactionary forces and calls them the democratic government of Iraq. The U.S. occupation has unleashed factional death squads which have ravaged the country with ethnic cleansing. They've tried to rewrite Iraqi laws to open its economy and oil wealth to U.S. capital. The U.S. has built massive military bases, some of which could be permanent and used to attack other countries. This is the reality behind Bush's declaration that a "central objective" of U.S. strategy is to turn Iraq into "an ally in this war on terror," and that "the future course of the Middle East will turn heavily on the outcome of the fight in Iraq," and why he promises to stay for a "long term relationship."

None of this is to say things would be fine in Iraq--or the region--the day U.S. forces left. Many forces--mostly reactionary at this point--have been uncorked by the imperialists' very actions in Iraq. But the alternative--a continued U.S. occupation of Iraq with all the death and destruction that that entails, and a continued "war on terror" against other countries--is much, much worse. It would mean that the most oppressive power on earth would be even more dominant and in a much better position to proceed with still greater horrors carried out against others.

As September comes to a close, the picture is as sharp as the autumn air. The U.S. will continue to carry out its crimes in Iraq. The groundwork for a possible attack on Iran will be further laid (and such an attack could happen at any time). The Democrats will continue to channel people's outrage into the dead end of the 2008 elections (and in the event of war against Iran, they have already pledged their support).

The time for massive political resistance is long overdue.............

Bush and his Pals are the true Extremists, and Bush is surely talking about his plans, and his agenda, when he states: "Extremists would control a key part of the world's energy supply, could blackmail and sabotage the global economy. They could use billions of dollars of oil revenues to buy weapons and pursue their deadly ambitions.". He's just looking at himself in the mirror. And in his reference to Iraq, saying " we're kicking ass ", he shows himself once again for the insensitive, uncaring dangerous maniac that he is. Thousands upon thousands of people, Iraqi and American, are having thier lives changed in hideous ways everyday because of this illegal and immoral war Bush started, and Mr War Dodger ( with his Daddy's help ) is laughing on the sidelines of this deadly conflict, safe in his protective White House bubble, Cheerleading like he used to do in his younger days, Yehaw, we're kickin ass, bring em on! When brave Bush goes to Iraq, he sneaks into the country, in suprise visits, un-announced, to huge military bases were no threat exist, does his quick photo opp, showing what a " courageous " leader he is, then he splits as fast as he came. Our Fearless Leader wouldn't want to " actually " put himself in harms way, no, thats left to the military ( men and women, sons and daughter, moms and dads ) that he uses as pawns in his elicite war, his war of lies, his war for oil.